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I don't want to just jump in with some negative comment here but let's start with being honest - 95% of this post is about the history of emojis, how to use the

I don't want to just jump in with some negative comment here but let's start with being honest - 95% of this post is about the history of emojis, how to use them, and what they mean. Which is a helluva lot of information about emojis for an article that concludes that they enjoyed NOT using emojis, and doesn't really have any substantive conclusion to make about things or any follow up.

reaperducer 5y ago
Like so many web sites and blog posts, it's nothing more than keyword stuffing. Trolling for Google clicks rather than imparting information.
insickness 5y ago
Without unnecessary information about the history of emojis, this would have been the entire article: -------------- When was the last time you went a day without using any emoji? How about a week? In March 2021, I went through a fun self-imposed experiment: no emoji for 2 weeks. Not on social media, not in private messages, not even as Slack or Discord reactions. No emoticon either: the goal was to communicate without illustrations, only with words. I did a semi-rigorous (a.k.a. half-assed) diary study, taking notes on my feelings and behaviour. Here’s what I wanted to find out: How does the lack of emoji affect my conversations with others? Will other aspects of my interactions be affected? My hypothesis was “I will somehow want to compensate for the lack of emoji.” So, what did happen when I stopped using emojis? On the first day of my experiment, I was already worrying that I wasn’t warm enough, or wasn’t conveying my reactions well enough. On the second day, I missed using emojis. It hadn’t even been 48 hours, but the good stuff comes when you push through, so I kept at it. On the third day, finally, I started feeling good about this. I wrote: “This is actually cool, I don't know if I want to get back to emojis. Maybe I just needed to get the habit out of my system.” No shit, Sherlock. In the first few days, I did have to edit emojis out of my messages, as I was using them reflexively. During this experiment, I pondered about the importance of emojis to convey banter, being concerned that without them, I’d simply come across as mean. In the end, I found myself adding a lot of exclamation marks, "hahaha", and writing more sentences to better communicate my mood. The need to better convey my messages forced me to have a deeper understanding what I was trying to communicate in the first place. Sometimes, a heart means “I love you”, “I miss you”, “I hope you’ll feel better soon”, “I love what you’re saying”, etc. Was I expecting my interlocutors to guess the exact meaning? I’m happy that it forced me to phrase my thoughts, look deeper into them, better identify and express them. I had to write "Thank you" or "That's great!" instead of adding a reaction emoji under a Slack message, Twitter DM, or Discord message, and I like to believe that those words carried more value than one more thumbs up added to the pile. Ever since my 2-week experiment ended, and I started operating with emojis again, I’ve been paying more attention to what I write. I prefer using emoji on top of self-sufficient phrasing. I want to make sure that my messages are clear enough without emoji, and only then might I add one, spending it on expendable flair rather than something meaning is reliant on. I wholeheartedly invite you to carry out this experiment for yourself. Who knows what fantastic feeling or intriguing behaviour you might uncover?
- lethologica 5y ago
  And that’s all it needed to be to convey the same message, despite the author talking about needing to watch their words more carefully during the experiment.
- Zababa 5y ago
  I think the article is better this way, especially since the author didn't really tie the previous info to their experience.
rotifer 5y ago
However, for anyone who does happen to be interested in the history of emoji, Keith Houston's Shady Characters blog has a ten(!) part series [0] on them. [0] https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2018/08/emoji-part-1-in-the-beginning/ https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2018/08/emoji-part-1-in-the-be...
- isaacimagine 5y ago
  There goes my Saturday... ;)
deleted 5y ago
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reaperducer 5y ago

Like so many web sites and blog posts, it's nothing more than keyword stuffing. Trolling for Google clicks rather than imparting information.

insickness 5y ago

Without unnecessary information about the history of emojis, this would have been the entire article: -------------- When was the last time you went a day without using any emoji? How about a week? In March 2021, I went through a fun self-imposed experiment: no emoji for 2 weeks. Not on social media, not in private messages, not even as Slack or Discord reactions. No emoticon either: the goal was to communicate without illustrations, only with words. I did a semi-rigorous (a.k.a. half-assed) diary study, taking notes on my feelings and behaviour. Here’s what I wanted to find out: How does the lack of emoji affect my conversations with others? Will other aspects of my interactions be affected? My hypothesis was “I will somehow want to compensate for the lack of emoji.” So, what did happen when I stopped using emojis? On the first day of my experiment, I was already worrying that I wasn’t warm enough, or wasn’t conveying my reactions well enough. On the second day, I missed using emojis. It hadn’t even been 48 hours, but the good stuff comes when you push through, so I kept at it. On the third day, finally, I started feeling good about this. I wrote: “This is actually cool, I don't know if I want to get back to emojis. Maybe I just needed to get the habit out of my system.” No shit, Sherlock. In the first few days, I did have to edit emojis out of my messages, as I was using them reflexively. During this experiment, I pondered about the importance of emojis to convey banter, being concerned that without them, I’d simply come across as mean. In the end, I found myself adding a lot of exclamation marks, "hahaha", and writing more sentences to better communicate my mood. The need to better convey my messages forced me to have a deeper understanding what I was trying to communicate in the first place. Sometimes, a heart means “I love you”, “I miss you”, “I hope you’ll feel better soon”, “I love what you’re saying”, etc. Was I expecting my interlocutors to guess the exact meaning? I’m happy that it forced me to phrase my thoughts, look deeper into them, better identify and express them. I had to write "Thank you" or "That's great!" instead of adding a reaction emoji under a Slack message, Twitter DM, or Discord message, and I like to believe that those words carried more value than one more thumbs up added to the pile. Ever since my 2-week experiment ended, and I started operating with emojis again, I’ve been paying more attention to what I write. I prefer using emoji on top of self-sufficient phrasing. I want to make sure that my messages are clear enough without emoji, and only then might I add one, spending it on expendable flair rather than something meaning is reliant on. I wholeheartedly invite you to carry out this experiment for yourself. Who knows what fantastic feeling or intriguing behaviour you might uncover?

lethologica 5y ago
And that’s all it needed to be to convey the same message, despite the author talking about needing to watch their words more carefully during the experiment.
Zababa 5y ago
I think the article is better this way, especially since the author didn't really tie the previous info to their experience.

rotifer 5y ago

However, for anyone who does happen to be interested in the history of emoji, Keith Houston's Shady Characters blog has a ten(!) part series [0] on them. [0] https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2018/08/emoji-part-1-in-the-beginning/ https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2018/08/emoji-part-1-in-the-be...

isaacimagine 5y ago
There goes my Saturday... ;)

deleted 5y ago

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